Syria

• UN monitors have helped negotiate the release of two detainees in exchange for a damaged tank, activists and the UN say. It is unclear why the Syrian government agreed to release the two men in exchange for a tank that appeared to be totally destroyed (see 4.19pm).

• Senior officers in the rebel Free Syrian Army have made a rare appearance on video, in a clip showing them providing a detailed description of the regular army's bombardment of the town of Rastan to UN monitors (see 3.55pm).

Yemen

• The annual National Day parade has gone ahead peacefully in Sana'a today, despite the bomb attack during yesterday's rehearsal. Its venue was hurriedly switched to the grounds of the air force academy and President Hadi watched from behind a bulletproof glass screen (see 10.12 am).

Libya

• A female candidate has topped the poll in Benghazi's local elections (see 11.01am).

• Tunisia will extradite former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's prime minister to Libya and the handover could take place in "days or weeks", Tunisia's justice minister Noureddine Bouheiri said (see 3.36pm).

Egypt

• A court has sentenced five policemen to 10 years in prison in absentia for killing anti-Mubarak protesters last year (see 4.09pm).

• Abul Fotouh's presidential campaign has complained about irregularities in electoral procedures for Egyptians in the Saudi city of Jeddah (see 12.49pm).

Bahrain

• Jailed activist Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja has appeared in court in a wheelchair for his retrial in a civilian court. The case has now been adjourned until 29 May, according to his wife (see 11.13am).

Lebanon

• In a move that could reduce the tension in Lebanon, a military prosecutor today ordered the release of Shadi Mawlawi, an outspoken Lebanese critic of Syrian president Bashar Assad (see 1.06pm).

4.19pm:Syria: UN monitors were involved in a deal to swap two detainees for a damaged tank in Khan Sheikhoun, Kofi Annan's spokesman has confirmed.

Ahmad Fawzi did not elaborate on the details. Footage from activists showed senior UN monitor Ahmet Himmiche, negotiating for the release of the two men (see 12.30pm).

4.09pm:Egypt: A court sentenced five policemen to 10 years in prison in absentia today for killing protesters, the Associated Press reports. It was a rare conviction of security officials accused of using deadly force against the demonstrations that overthrew Hosni Mubarak last year.

Typically defendants who do not appear in court are automatically convicted, but will also receive a new trial once apprehended. However, families of slain protesters attending the court session counted the convictions as a victory. They broke down in tears and chanted "God is great!" in a show of relief.

Our colleague Jack Shenker says these are the most serious sentences given so far to any security force members charged with unlawful killing of demonstrators (apart from one death penalty, which was later overturned). Most of the others have been acquitted or given suspended sentences. This verdict could be overturned in a higher court but it's still a significant development – and of course the timing is interesting, coming on the eve of the presidential election.

4.02pm:Egypt: Our colleague Jack Shenker has just sent us a spreadsheet which is doing the rounds in Egypt. You fill in the questionnaire, and then it tells you who you should be voting for in the presidential election.

One of the thick-set officers in the clip says "rockets are coming from the southern and northern side". Asked by the monitor to say who was firing the rockets he replied "The brigade of bridge engineers."

He said they were part of field brigade number one which includes battalion 15 and battalion 18, according to our colleague Mona Mahmood. It is equipped with mortars and tanks the officer told the monitors.

A rebel commander told the note-taking monitor that all political prisoners were taken to the fourth division's military prison in Damascus so that they were out of view of the UN.

Asked by the monitor to specify which branch of the prison, the uniformed man said: "293".

"We will register the detainees," the monitor told him.

3.36pm:Tunisia: The authorities will extradite former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's prime minister to Libya and the handover could take place in "days or weeks", Tunisia's justice minister Noureddine Bouheiri said today. Reuters reports:

A Tunisian court dropped charges of illegally entering the country against al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi in February but he has remained in jail since last year, pending a decision on his extradition to Libya.

"The government has decided to hand over Mahmoudi and all that remains is the completion of some organisational issues," Bouheiri told Reuters in an interview.

A Tunisian court had ruled in November that Mahmoudi should be extradited, but Tunisian President Moncef al-Marzouki later said the handover would not take place until the situation in Libya had stabilised and he could be guaranteed a fair trial after Gaddafi himself was killed by rebels.

That left Mahmoudi in an unusual position, in which he was acquitted of charges in Tunisia but remained in custody pending agreement with the Libyan government over his fate.

Asked when the handover might happen, Bouheiri said: "This could be within days or weeks or perhaps longer ... Our Libyan brothers have pledged to respect Mahmoudi physically and emotionally and to give him a fair trial."

3.04pm:Yemen: Today's National Day commemorates the unification of north and south Yemen in 1990 – though many in the south do not regard it as a cause for celebration. Separatist activism in the south revived during the last few years of President Saleh's rule.

In an article for Comment is free, Abubakr al-Shamahi cautions against separatism, saying that the crimes committed against the people of the south were committed by the Saleh regime, and not by "the north". He continues:

It is also undeniable that Yemenis share a common bond as one people. Initially, unification was incredibly popular, and to this day most secessionists will only say that it was betrayed. Those who reject a Yemeni identity, and claim a "South Arabian" one, seem to ignore that the term, in its political sense, only came about with the British occupation of the region.

Yemenis from every part of the country have intermarried, and live in all parts of the country. Any secession would split families and friends, and ruin the already depleted economy. Once the current anger at the apparent northern hegemony subsides, only regret would remain, akin to the lament the two Koreas express.

2.55pm:Syria: Syrian police killed two people when they opened fire on a crowd who came out to welcome UN observers in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, a rebel official told Reuters.

"As soon as the UN convoy entered al-Busaira, a jubilant crowd of hundreds came out to welcome them. It was not minutes before they came under fire," Abu Laila, a Free Syrian Army official, said by phone from the town.

"The observers immediately left al-Busaira. We called them to come back but they refused," he said, adding that fighting ensued between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels based in the town.

There was no independent confirmation of the incident.

Another opposition source in the province said that government forces surrounding al-Busaira had begun firing anti-aircraft guns at the town.

2.37pm:Lebanon: Foreign Policy magazine has a dramatic firsthand account of the weekend's violence between pro and anti-Syrian groups in Beirut.

Beirut-based journalist Mitch Prothero writes:

I was on the corner of Beirut's Tareeq Jdeideh neighborhood when things turned bonkers. Attackers opened fire with multiple automatic weapons on a group of arguing men and soldiers. The soldiers ducked for cover along with the civilians: A young soldier and I fell behind a Volkswagen sedan for cover as scores of kids sprinted down the street away from the gunfire. Several were hit in the back as they fled.

Prothero has this summary of the causes of the violence:

Sunday night seemed more about revenge toward the army for the earlier shootings [of two Sunni clerics] months of pent-up frustration from being saddled with a government perceived to be doing Syria's bidding, and an effort to cleanse Sunni neighbourhoods of proxy parties aligned with the Syrians and Hezbollah.

And, this gloomy assessment of the future:

It's only going to get worse: The government's response to the violence will almost certainly be the tightening of pro-Assad forces' control over the Army, police and intelligence services. There's already been a quiet movement within the ministries to stack the bureaucracy with those sympathetic to Hezbollah and its allies, and the arrests of Sunday night's partisans had already begun by Monday morning. But as Lebanon drifts further into Syria's orbit, a large community of very angry people began rebelling Sunday night. And the path ahead is neither clear nor safe.

Syria: The explosion that reportedly killed five people in the Qaboun district of Damascus last night (see 10.44am) remains rather puzzling. The Associated Press says:

It was not clear what the exact target of the blast was, although authorities in Damascus said it appeared to be a police station. But photos of the scene released by the state news agency, Sana, showed what looked like a restaurant.

The area was considered too dangerous for journalists to access.

2.08pm:Syria/Turkey: The Turkish police have foiled a suspected plot to abduct the head of the Free Syrian Army Colonel Riad al-Asaad, according to Turkish press reports.

Hatay chief public prosecutor Adem Yazar said in a statement on Monday that an investigation was launched after a tip-off that a Syrian colonel currently residing in a tent city in the village of Apaydin, located in Hatay province, was going to be abducted and handed over to Syrian authorities.

1.57pm:Egypt: The authorities have finally allowed presidential election observers to start work – though it's too late for them to draw a full picture, Reuters reports, citing monitoring groups.

Many international monitors arrived in April but waited weeks for the necessary paperwork, forcing them to miss most of an election campaign enlivened by mass rallies, vigorous canvassing and Egypt's first televised presidential debates.

"We could not really assess the pre-electoral period as we did not have the accreditation," said Justin Doua, field director for the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), one of three foreign groups checking the vote.

Another, the Carter Center, said last week the delay in getting badges meant its monitors could not observe candidate and voter nominations or campaigning, which ended on Sunday.

The Center, founded by former US President Jimmy Carter with a remit to promote peace, democracy and public health, said on Tuesday it had now received its monitoring badges.

But a network of Arab monitors named Maat - after an ancient Egyptian goddess who personified truth, morality and justice - said some of its staff had still not received theirs.

EISA has sent its 33 witnesses out to 15 provinces and they reported some minor disorder during electoral meetings but no major clashes between rival campaigns, Doua said.

The Carter Center has also complained of state election committee rules limiting the time monitors can spend in polling stations and barring them from commenting on the process until results are announced.

Fewer international groups will be monitoring the vote than during a parliamentary election, whose final stage in January was overshadowed by a judicial crackdown on several civil society groups accused of receiving illegal foreign funds.

The election committee has accredited 9,700 monitors from 54 foreign and local groups for the presidential election, said Hazem Mounir of the election unit at Egypt's National Council for Human Rights, far fewer than in the parliamentary vote.

• Guardian journalist Ian Black, who is in Egypt for the election, is answering readers' questions here.

Syria

• UN monitors have helped negotiate the release of two detainees in exchange for a damaged tank, according video from activists. It is unclear why the Syrian government agreed to release the two men in exchange for a tank that appeared to be totally destroyed (see 12.30pm).

Yemen

• The annual National Day parade has gone ahead peacefully in Sana'a today, despite the bomb attack during yesterday's rehearsal. Its venue was hurriedly switched to the grounds of the air force academy and President Hadi watched from behind a bulletproof glass screen (see 10.12 am).

1.06pm:Lebanon: In a move that could reduce the tension in Lebanon, a military prosecutor today ordered the release of Shadi Mawlawi, an outspoken Lebanese critic of Syrian president Bashar Assad, the Associated Press reports.

Mawlawi's arrest earlier this month sparked clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian groups in the northern city of Tripoli that killed eight people. Judicial officials said Mawlawi was released on about $333 bail and will not be allowed to leave the country.

Following his release, Mawlawi – who was accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation – said he had confessed "under psychological pressure", in remarks quoted by the Daily Star.

Mawlawi, who wore a black headband bearing the Muslim profession of faith, insisted that his confession was null and void due to the manner in which it was extracted.

"I confessed to many things but only under pressure and any person would have confessed to those things when placed under such psychological pressure ... I later disavowed my confession."

Soon after Military Investigating Judge Nabil Wehbi approved his release, Mawlawi was whisked away from the Beirut Military Court in a dark Peugeot belonging to Safadi.

In a statement, the campaign claimed it detected certain irregularities, saying that the consulate closed its doors after voting and asked the supervisors to leave and start the vote count the next day.

It also claimed that certain political forces collected ID cards from voters and voted on their behalf, and duplicate ballots were sent by mail.

Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi is reportedly in the lead among Saudi-based Egyptians, with almost 50% of the vote.

12.30pm:Syria: UN monitors have helped negotiate the release of two detainees in exchange for a damaged tank, according to video from activists.

Himmiche made reference to the incident in the latest video. He said: "We will assess how to move them [the detainees] from here, and Khan Sheikhoun will go down in history. We will say that Khan Sheikhoun is able to protect the monitors and their cars."

In the clip he says: "An agreement has been reached to exchange detainees for a tank which has been destroyed. The UN has intervened to sought out this problem, with the people of Khan Sheikhoun who have protected the UN."

The detainees are later shown emerging from a UN vehicle. A damaged tank is also shown being taken away by what appear to be government soldiers.

The footage cannot be independently verified. The UN has yet to respond to queries about the apparent exchange.

11.49am:Syria: An activist leader in Homs has accused the Assad regime of involvement in terrorism, writes Imogen Blake.

Speaking through an interpreter he said: "We are working within the context of humanity, security and freedom. It is the other side that is [responsible] for relationships with terrorist groups and for various incidents which have occurred, including the assassination of Hariri [a reference to the killing of Lebanon's prime minister in 2005]."

Khaled also paid tribute to Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Rémi Ochlik who were killed in a makeshift press centre in the Baba Amr area of Homs in February.

He said: "I worked with the journalists during their presence in Syria, especially Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik. After the unfortunate deaths of these journalists, I want to make known that... the relationship between the activists and the international journalists was strong."

11.30am: Syria: Rebels have been filmed celebrating after capturing and setting alight a government tank in the north-west province of Idlib.

The unverified footage was uploaded to the Syria-registered YouTube account idlib4all, which features videos in and around Idlib,

11.01am:Libya: Interesting development in Benghazi following the local elections on Saturday. Brown Moses (in the discussion thread below) highlights the success of a female candidate, Najat Rashid Mansur al-Kikhia, who defeated male contenders in the al-Birka district.

She secured 7,784 votes – more than any other candidate in the city. Asma Magariaf has been tweeting about her background, and here is a photo:

10.44am:Syria: The government news agency, Sana, has published photographs from the scene of last night's explosion in al-Qaboun district of Damascus.

It says: "An explosive device, planted by an armed terrorist group, went off causing the martyrdom of the civilians who were at the site of explosion." There are no details about the building where the explosion occurred.

10.12am:Yemen: The annual National Day ceremony has gone ahead peacefully this morning in Sana'a, despite the bomb attack during yesterday's rehearsal.

Fazil Corman, the Turkish ambassador in Yemen, has been tweeting from the ceremony. He says the venue was changed at the last minute but he thinks it was the "right decision" to go ahead with it.

President Hadi arrives at the Yemen National Day ceremony. Solemn atmosphere but good participation in solidarity. twitter.com/FazliCorman/st…

Reuters adds that President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who replaced President Saleh earlier this year, watched the parade from behind a bulletproof glass screen at the hastily rearranged and heavily protected new location – the air force academy in Sana'a.

A centre is formed when two opposing forces of equal power and clearly different ideologies are fighting for control, thus creating the political balance that allows a centre to emerge. This doesn't exist in Egypt, which is why Abul Fotouh is turning more and more Islamist to appease his new Salafi supporters, and Moussa is finding himself up in shit-creek without a paddle.

One achievement of the Egyptian presidential election, he says, is that it has killed all ideologies:

We have leftists supporting an Islamist candidate, liberals supporting a Nasserite leftists, A revolutionary workers-rights crusader candidate who didn't get the support of the workers and ended up only getting nominated by MP signatures from parties that he considered anti-revolutionary ...

It's a fine mess that will surely leave analysts and pundits scratching their head for years to come to make any sense of its one million and one questions, where ironically all the answers so far are as clear as grey.

It is important to keep in mind that it is not possible at this point to develop a good predictive model of electoral behaviour in Egypt, as the experiment is new, coalitions are still forming, and little information is available about likely voters. Therefore, polls ... can give a hint of the trends in public opinion about the presidential candidates but cannot provide accurate predictions ...

We know that political machinery is essential in getting out the vote and that the political environment in Egypt is changing almost by the day.

9.01am:Syria: There's been another bomb near the capital Damascus, Reuters reports:

Five people were killed when an explosive device detonated at a restaurant in the Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday, Syrian state media and activists said.

The northern Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun where the bomb went off has been a centre of protests demanding the end of President Bashar al-Assad's rule and has also seen fighting between Assad loyalists and rebels.

State television blamed the explosion on "terrorists," a term the Syrian government uses when referring to the armed opposition. It said the bomb exploded in a restaurant and showed footage of a burnt-out kitchen and a room full of debris.

- Rebels admitted that the government had succeed in exacerbating the the sectarian nature of the crisis. Mohammed Faisal, a defector from Aleppo, said: "There is no escaping that this has become sectarian in nature, but it's not what we want, it's what the regime wants. I have Alawite friends. I can't talk to them since I have left, even though I think I can still trust them. I just have to be careful now. A valley is between us and there is nothing we can do."

- Rebels bristle at regime claims that they are linked with al-Qaida but are frustrated that the regime's narrative is starting to prevail.

- The fighters don't expect help from the international community. One said: "Nothing will happen before the American elections, will it? And the French are too busy at home. Turkey and Saudi Arabia will do nothing without America, so it will come down to us."

Yemen's newly installed president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was due to attend the celebrations, responded to the bomb attack by firing two senior commanders, both allies of his predecessor, Saleh. One of them, a nephew of Saleh's, was the head of national security, an elite intelligence gathering unit that works closely with the CIA.

Egyptian journalists shook their heads in despair as Morsi finally spoke – only to utter a catalogue of unquotable platitudes. The hope is that ideology and discipline will win out over personality ...

"In football can't a substitute come on with 10 minutes to go and score the winning goal?" asked Sheikh Mohammed Abdel-Maqsud.

The men travelled to one of dozens of houses that are scattered throughout this island nation, where a secret and growing network of caregivers — doctors, first-aid medics or people with no medical experience at all — wait daily for the casualties from the protests. The houses are not really field hospitals, but rather sitting rooms, often equipped with nothing more than bandages and gauze.